The New York financier J.P. Morgan was not only a canny investor and a passionate art collector—he was also exceedingly superstitious. Interested in the occult, a believer in astrology, and an obsessive solitaire player, his interests dovetailed in the 1911 acquisition of dozens of cards associated with a legendary 15th-century tarot deck, created for Milan’s ducal Visconti-Sforza family by the northern Italian artist Bonifacio Bembo.
The partial deck is a signature holding of his namesake and legacy, the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, and the 35 cards are now the basis for a sprawling two-part exhibition about tarot, opening this month. Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions will feature around 380 works, starting with the courtly culture of 15th-century Lombardy and culminating in the New York of 2026 with on-site tarot readings for museum-goers.
